Category: Knee Info

What is Patient Specific Instrumentation (PSI): One of the important ingredients that makes your total knee replacement into a success is accurate placement of the knee replacement components on your tibia and femur bones. Using standard instrumentation the placement of the components is already very accurate but with the use of patient specific instrumentation the chances of producing a poorly aligned knee is even further reduced. The great majority of patients that are a candidate for total knee replacement will...

What is revision total knee replacement? A knee replacement will eventually fail. The majority (90-95%) of knee replacements will last between 15 to 20 years. Knee replacements can fail for a number of reasons, the most common being, infection, aseptic loosening and instability. Fractures around the knee replacement are also becoming more common. Revision knee surgery involves the removal of the failed implant and replacement by a new knee replacement. The revision procedure is more complex than a total knee...

In young patients where knee replacement may not be ideal and in patients who are physically very active and require to kneel for their work a high tibial osteotomy may be indicated. Depending on the deformity of the leg being either knock kneed or bowlegged the bony cut (osteotomy) is done at the distal femur bone or the proximal tibia bone. The principle of the operation is to realign the weight bearing axes of the leg in such a way...

If only one compartment of the knee is osteoarthritic (most often the inside or medial compartment) you may be a candidate for a unicompartment knee replacement. This is effectively a partial knee replacement of the arthritic compartment of the knee. To be a suitable candidate the bowed leg deformity has to be correctable and the anterior cruciate ligament of the knee (has to be intact.) Replace with “is preferred to be intact” You should be able to almost fully straighten...

A knee arthroscopy is often referred to as “keyhole surgery”. Using an arthroscope and special instruments the inside of the knee is examined through two or rarely three small incisions around the knee. Arthroscopy of the knee is quite commonly performed for dealing with meniscal tears. These are often diagnosed on a MRI scan. Some meniscal tears are amenable to repair with suture anchors. If possible, a repair is always preferred over resection of the torn meniscus. Unfortunately, the majority...

Total Knee Replacement What is knee arthritis? What can I do to get rid of my knee pain? What do I do if my arthritic knee symptoms are not improved by non-surgical methods? What is total knee replacement? How long does the operation take? Will the operation be painful? What sort of scar will I have? What are the complications of knee surgery? What is knee arthritis? Arthritis of the knee is damage to the articular cartilage of the...